This invention is related generally to storage of electrical ornamental lights and more particularly, storage of lights that have electrified strands hanging pendant from a main string.
Icicle lights are a type of an electrified ornamental light commonly used for decorating homes and businesses during holiday seasons. Lights consist of a main strand of electrified lights designed to be installed horizontally on a building surface. Dangling down from the main string are a number of strands of electrified lights to loosely simulate natural icicles. The vertical strands are generally kinked to add to the effect.
Removal and storage of the lights at the end of decorating season such that the lights are easily replacable onto the building at the beginning of the ensuing holiday season has been difficult. Due to the strands, typical coiling is troublesome. Even when coiling is accomplished, storing of the coiled string in any spatial orientation causes the strands to entangle with themselves and the main coil.
It would be of significant benefit to have a device which would allow storage of icicle lights without tangling.
It is an object of this invention to provide an apparatus for storing ornamental lights which have strands pendant to the main string of lights, without tangling.
It is another object of this invention to provide a storage device for ornamental lights which can be stored on the floor or hanging from the ceiling.
A further object of this invention is to provide a light storage device which is easily assembled.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide a device that can easily engage lights by the rotation of the main portion of the device with respect to the storage-positioning member.
Another aspect of the invention is a method for placing lights onto a device for storing the lights without the strands being tangled.
How these and other objects are accomplished will be apparent from the descriptions which follow.
This invention is a novel storage device for storing strings of ornamental lights that have a plurality strands hanging pendant from the string. The device has an elongate vertical member extending generally along an axis and having a top end and a bottom end and a plurality of spokes attached with respect to the elongate vertical member and radiating therefrom such that each spoke is located at substantially the same predetermined distance from the bottom end of the elongate vertical member. It is preferable that the elongate vertical member is a cylinder.
The device has two preferred orientations of the angle of the spokes. In the first of these orientations, the spokes are angled upward with respect to the axis of the elongate vertical member. In this manner, as the strings are being spiraled onto the device, adjacent portions of the string may be easily placed close to each other. A preferred embodiment of this orientation includes a non-smooth surface to keep the adjacent portions of strings from tangling with each other as the string is placed on the device.
The other orientation of the spokes is perpendicular to the axis of the elongate vertical member. A preferred embodiment of this orientation has each of the spokes spaced equally around the elongate vertical member.
It is a preferred embodiment for the storage device to include a storage-positioning member attached with respect to an end of the elongate vertical member whereby the elongate vertical member may be stored in an upright position. The storage-positioning member may be a connecting member attached with respect to the top end of the elongate vertical member whereby the connecting member can removably engage a complementary connecting structure fastened to a fixed surface such that the elongate vertical member may hang vertically therefrom.
The preferred embodiment of the connecting member is a loop whereby a complementary hook attached to a fixed surface can removably engage the loop.
The storage-positioning member may also be a base support member attached with respect to the bottom end of the elongate vertical member. With a base support member, it is preferable to have the predetermined distance from the bottom end of the elongate vertical member to the spokes at least as long as the longest strand. The most preferable embodiment of the device is to have a connecting member at the top end of the elongate vertical member and the base support member at the bottom of the elongate vertical member such that a user has an option as to how to store the device vertically.
In one preferred embodiment of the device, there are four spokes. In a more preferred embodiment, the four spokes are made of an upper elongate horizontal member having a lower surface from which lower surface there is sufficient material removed to create a notch substantially transverse across the lower surface, and a lower elongate horizontal member having an upper surface from which upper surface there is sufficient material removed to create a notch substantially transverse across the upper surface. In this way, each elongate horizontal member can be inserted perpendicularly with respect to each other through the elongate vertical member such that the notch of the lower surface of the upper elongate horizontal member will engage the notch on the upper surface of the lower elongate horizontal member within the elongate vertical member.
In yet another embodiment of the device, the elongate vertical member may rotatably move with respect to either or both of the storage-positioning members about the axis of the elongate vertical member.
Another aspect of the invention is method for storing strings of ornamental lights which have two ends and a plurality of strands interspersed between the two ends, said strands hanging pendant from the string, using a device having a elongate vertical member extending generally along an axis including a top end and a bottom end, with spokes attached with respect to the elongate vertical member and radiating from it. The method involves the the steps of: indenting an end portion of a string of oramental lights; placing the end portion of the string of ornamental lights adjacent to the elongate vertical member directly above a point of attachment of the spokes to the elongate vertical member; rotating the elongate vertical member about the axis such that the entire string of ornamental lights removably coils around the elongate vertical member with the strands hanging down substantially parallel to the axis of the elongate vertical member and between the spokes; and placing the device vertically in a location suitable for storage of the ornamental lights.
Another embodiment of this method involves the elongate vertical member having a connecting member attached with respect to the top end of the elongate vertical member. In this way the connecting member can removably engage a complementary connecting structure fastened to a fixed surface such that the elongate vertical member may hang vertically.